Air India deploys B 777 on international routes

New Delhi, Jan. 17:  

Air India on Thursday deployed a Boeing 777-300 extended range aircraft to transport people to Paris and Frankfurt, following the grounding of all six Boeing 787 aircraft (Dreamliners) in its fleet early this morning.

Sources told Business Line that the Boeing 777 aircraft would operate to Frankfurt and back till the 787 was allowed to fly again. Passengers booked to Paris will be sent onwards from Frankfurt. Till Thursday morning, the airline was using a Boeing 787 aircraft to operate separate flights linking the national capital to Paris and Frankfurt.

It now emerges that the airline used two Boeing 787 aircraft to operate early morning flights from Delhi to Bangalore and Chennai. This was because instructions to ground the aircraft reached late. These aircraft are unlikely to head back to Delhi on return flights.

In addition, two aircraft from Paris and Frankfurt were grounded on arrival at Delhi around 9 am.

The Boeing 787, which is the newest civilian aircraft in the global market is a long-range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner, developed by the US-based Boeing. Its variants seat 210 to 290 passengers. The aircraft entered commercial service in October 2011 after a delay of almost three years.

Air India received its first Dreamliner in September 2012. The aircraft entered commercial service on September 19, operating a Delhi-Chennai-Delhi flight followed by a return flight between Delhi and Bangalore the same day.

ANA, JAL, Ethiopian, Qatar Airways and Air India are among some of the global airlines that have inducted this aircraft into their fleet.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that a particular fleet of an airline has been grounded in India. In the 1990s, Indian Airlines grounded all the 14 Airbus A-320 family fleet following a crash in Bangalore. The grounding lasted for about nine months and cost the airline about Rs 200 crore.

Reuters and Associated Press add:

While the US Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory to ground the Dreamliners in that country, a Boeing 787 was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan when it was found that the main battery beneath the cockpit was swollen from overheating, a safety official said today. Japan too has grounded the technologically advanced aircraft because of fire risk.

Investigators found burn marks around the battery, though it was not thought to have caught fire. Kosugi also said the electrolyte liquid leaked through the electrical room floor to the outside of the aircraft, Kyodo news agency reported.

Thales, which makes the battery charging system, has not commented so far.

Air India’s decision today to ground its fleet of six Boeing 787 and a similar order in Europe for Polish airline LOT means that some 38 of the 50 jets in use around the world are now out of action.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-corporate/air-india-deploys-b-777-on-international-routes/article4317146.ece